The removal of business conditions would save Vietnam around 5.84 million working days for businesses and citizens, equivalent to VND872 billion (US$37.2 million) per year, according to the government's estimation.

In 2018, the government targeted to remove at least 50% of administrative procedures, simplify 61% business conditions and reduce 60% of specialized inspection for trade activities.

According to the government’s report, many government agencies and provinces have sped up the processing time and fostering the application of online public services, especially in tax, custom and judicial system.

However, the government urged local authorities to address the issue of missing deadline in solving daily tasks and returning results for citizens. Ho Chi Minh City was named at the top of the list having the largest number of 70,000 of overdue cases, followed by Long An with 17,000 and Binh Duong with 5,200.

The reason behind the issue was the lack of coordination among agencies, as well as the shortage of manpower.

Sluggish SOE privatization

The report added that in 2018, 23 state-owned entities carried out the privatization worth VND31.7 trillion (US$1.35 billion), while 28 proceeded with their respective initial public offerings (IPOs), raising VND21.8 trillion (US$932.46 million).

Total revenue from the privatization of state firms and divestment of state capital reached VND21.7 trillion (US$928.18 million) last year.

Nevertheless, the government acknowledged slow process in approving restructuring scheme for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, two cities with the largest number of SOEs subject to privatization.

Meanwhile, the business performance of some SOEs remained modest and disproportional to the financial resources under their disposal.

In the first four months of 2019, government agencies approved the privatization schemes of just two SOEs with total value of VND295 billion (US$12.73 billion), according to Vice Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai.

From the total of 126 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) subject to privatization in the 2017 – 2018 period at the prime minister’s request, only 26 so far have completed the process, accounting for nearly 25% of the target, Mai added.

This brings total number of SOEs having privatization scheme approved during the three-year period, from 2016 to April 2019, to 164 with combined value of VND442 trillion (US$19.08 billion), of which the state capital amounted to VND206 trillion (US$8.89 billion).

According to Mai, the slow privatization progress of SOEs was partly due to the lack of efforts from ministries and provinces, while problems in finance, land and laborers from periods prior to the privatization also hindered the process at targeted SOEs.

In addition, the divestment process for SOEs has also lagged behind schedule. Some 135 SOEs were scheduled for divestment in 2017 and 181 others in 2018. However, only 31 firms have finished the divestment process on schedule. Hanoitimes

Nguyen Tung